Toll-dodging trucker gets charges reduced

Prosecutors have dropped all but 10 charges of using a stolen E-ZPass device against a western Pennsylvania trucker accused of avoiding more than $500,000 in tolls.

Thirty-eight-year-old Thomas Wambold, of Derry Township, has waived his right to a preliminary hearing on theft, fraud, receiving stolen property and the remaining E-ZPass charges now that Somerset County prosecutors have agreed to streamline the case against him.

He was initially charged in July with using the stolen device more than 1,200 times between September 2005 and this March. Authorities say he avoided $575,980 in Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls.

The trucker's attorney says he now faces just 10 charges of using the stolen device besides the other crimes. Each E-ZPass charge carries a maximum $1,000 fine. Wambold initially faced more than $1.2 million in fines.